


How You (Two) Came To Be

by OMDrawings



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: A catalyst for cute Terraqua interaction with some baby antics, AU, Baby Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Baby Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Divergent Timelines, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,267
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21842959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OMDrawings/pseuds/OMDrawings
Summary: When all is said and done, this is their definition of "normal" now.And Aqua hates it.But, like most things, she's accepting it more and more as the days go on.
Relationships: Aqua & Vanitas (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua & Ventus (Kingdom Hearts), Aqua/Terra (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 6
Kudos: 37





	How You (Two) Came To Be

**Author's Note:**

> This idea came from a few buddies over on the _Realm Between_ Discord server I run!  
> Special shout-out to Vibranch on here for proof reading and giving me feedback, as well as sharing their own writings to help keep me sane.

A choir of crickets sung their tunes far outside. The night owl made its presence known. And the moon shone over the mountainous range, casting shadows to the world below. Without thought, the breeze swayed the trees into dance, the clouds curtains to the moon's show.

All was right in the world outside, peaceful, quiet, balanced.

Within reinforced walls rest the body of a blue maiden, her form smothered under thick blankets and the arm of a brunet snoring quietly besides her. Their soft breaths synched, and hearts aligned through their slumber. Even still, neither were able to dive into their midnight fantasies. How could they when in the room besides them came innocent cries brought on by a nightmare?

Aqua was the first snapped from her sleep, unusually attuned to the soft murmurs of distress to the room adjacent. She slipped deafly from her partner's arms to reach the open threshold into the small nursery connected to their bedroom. Sleepless mutterings came from the Earthen man, "It's probably nothing", "Go back to sleep", begging to regain his lost warmth fell uselessly as Aqua already loomed above the sound's origins.

Without hesitation, she reached down and scooped the small body up into her arms. Her humming began with a head of short blonde hair cradled close to her heart.

In a sweet whisper, she shushed the grumbling infant. It did little to help, but turned watery sapphire eyes to hers as the woman settled into the nursery's rocking chair. "There's no need to fuss. You're alright. I'm here now. Everything’s alright, Ven."

As her legs pushed them off into a steady, slow rock, Aqua leaned her head back into the cushions as she observed the minute way the infant’s fussing stalled. His head lolled into her neck, soothed by the slow kneading of her fingers against his back. Peace fell once more over castle.

But how bittersweet the moment felt.

These nights felt like a normal staple to Aqua; rising early in the mornings at any slight sound coming from the little nursery Terra and she had thrown together not five months prior. They should not have felt so natural; never with what cards she’d been dealt and surely not with how well Terra reacted in turn. For in her arms was not their child: it was their friend. Their closest friend—their brother in some manner—locked behind a body of soft skin and petite size. ' _Reborn_ ', Ansem had commented when evaluating Ventus, ' _The same heart, body reverted._ '

Across from the mutely creaking chair stirred another. Aqua knew it would happen before she had sat down. When one woke, the other followed suite. She carefully rose from the rocking chair, gliding across the cold wooden floor to the other crib sitting adjacent its twin. Silently, Aqua balanced the two tiny bodies within her arms, having practiced many nights over the same routine when Terra decided to let her handle things alone. Ventus slept as eyes of ruby stared to him beneath raven locks. "Vanitas," she cooed. All Aqua could do was press a gentle kiss to the infant's forehead to get those passionate eyes to focus on her. Once more going over to her chair to settle into tempo, now with two small-clothed forms pressed into her for warmth.

Again, the nagging of normalcy returned, now with a new set of tiny hands resting onto Aqua's collar bone as she brought the three of them in gentle motion.

Forward and back.

 _Forward_ and _back_.

Her mind rarely did the same thing, going forwards and backwards on agreeing to her and Terra’s decision to simply roll with the situation. She just felt _tired_ now, too focused on keeping the two boys curled in her arms happy and healthy to dwell on the subject of what-ifs and could-haves.

When the days began melting together and the push for adventure ceased, Aqua could only comprehend her instincts and responsibility linked to the small babes she sheltered.

( _A mother_ , she mused, _that’s what they call us. Parents with no rings, children not of our own creation._ The word sounded fitting.)

Clashing orbs of blue and red drooped in the soft glow of the moon. Both looked to Aqua, silently waiting for what was to come in their little nightly routine. Normally, Terra would be the one there to tell them stories or join in lullabies to lull them back to sleep. However, it seemed Aqua would have to make due alone.

"Hmm. What story tonight?" She whispered her query, shifting to comfortably support both expecting babes in her arms. "Terra hasn't told the story of how you two showed up, has he?" Aqua knew neither could understand her, it would be a silly prayer to hope they could, but as she spoke, their eyes seemed to light up at the prospect. "I guess that will have to do for now, then."

_It had been not a week since their return._ When fresh wounds barely had time to heal, and their mourning just settled in, did reality finally sink in. _They were home._ Terra, Ventus, and Aqua: the trio reunited, their hearts singing their triumphs, they were home.

The Land of Departure still overlooked their world—their home—and the night skies still glittered bright, full of stars to keep the moon company. Their rooms, each came to find, had remained untouched, looking just as they had abandoned them all those years ago.

It had been a decade, they realized, they feared. It had been over a decade of wandering, of darkness, of struggles. Each their own personal demons to haunt their dreams, to fill their eyes with shadows in the corners and trick their ears when all was still. But they were together. They could face it all. They could face _anything_.

They cleaned what needed to be cleaned, they left their late Master’s room rest (too soon, they agreed, too soon to begin going through his personal collections), and lost memories were found through picture books and old journals.

(“No, Terra! I’m not letting you read mine!” Aqua had squealed on a particularly dreary day, the three cooped up in the library as the rain washed away their plans for gardening.

“Why not? I let you and Ven look at mine.” Terra exaggerated his voice, feigning hurt with a pouting lip that was so over-the-top Ven couldn’t contain his laughter. “For shame, Aqua. Ten years and you’re still such a girl.”)

Distractions. That’s what their chores were. Pleasant little distractions as they re-established themselves in their own home. Away from the Keyblade War, away from Xehanort, and far away from the dark reality nibbling away at the back of their minds.

Terra was the first to announce the silent dread they all had: “ _Sora’s gone.”_ It had come up at dinner, a simple tomato and basil soup turned sour at the straightforward revelation. While they had all been trying to rebuild what was lost, what with everything that had changed, it seemed the fact just… skipped over their minds.

(Riku had mentioned it before, in the chaos of a beachside picnic with clamoring voices too distracted by the fact that they were _back_. That they were all _safe_ and _alive_ after everything.)

“Sora’s gone…” Ven had echoed, staring blankly into his bowl of steaming seasoned broth, “He’s gone.”

They had quickly chased away the subject, Aqua standing so abruptly from the table to keep tears from her eyes Terra flinched. She’d make them sandwiches to accompany the soup, she decided, declared, and went to do so. Terra (thankfully) followed her step, hoisting Ventus from his chair to carry the blond into the kitchen. Cries of resistance melded with laughter as the boy allowed his friend to abuse him so, seeing nothing wrong with the act.

(He was always so oblivious. Maybe they were too…)

By the next morning, before the sun had risen, Aqua faced a sight she’d only imagined in the darkest of her nightmares.

Within Ven’s room slept no one. The blond was gone, nowhere to be seen.

(She can still remember the look on Terra’s face when the bell rung. When she blindly ran to the throne room and yanked its cord so hard, the seams could have almost ripped. His half-dressed body, drenched in sweat and pale. Questions bubbling on his tongue, ripped away when he saw her, in the same state and trembling with tears pooling in her own oceans of blue.)

They searched the entire castle by mid-morning. Every worn, hidden, and abused path of the castle’s grounds by afternoon. In the little village at the base of the castle’s mountain, every resident interrogated by evening.

Nothing.

They had come back with _nothing_.

When they returned home, their heads hung low as Aqua retreated back to her room, she paused in the open door to Ven’s hallow room. She stared at his made bed, almost untouched save for his pillow laying upright against the wall, rather than flat as he always kept it. Out of some repressed muscle memory from ten-odd years ago, she went to fix the minor mistake. What she found from the small act made her heart lurch.

Under the pillow was a single leaflet of paper, folded neatly down the center and once more over into a delicate square.

The pillow lay discarded on the floor, dropped sometime after Aqua’s eyes focused on the note now grasped between her fingers. Unfolding it, her heart shattered.

_“I’m going to bring Sora home._

_I owe him that much, don’t I?_

_Terra, keep Aqua safe for me._

_Aqua, watch Terra’s back while I’m gone._

_When I come home, he’ll be with me. Promise._

_\- Ventus”_

_“Hmm, you’re telling them that story?_ ” The deep voice brought Aqua out of her concentration. Her eyes had closed at some point; head tilted back into the rocking chairs’ backing cushions. She hadn’t even realized the tanned man had been leaning against the nursery’s threshold listening to her voice ramble away the story’s events.

“I am. Why, did you want to take over?” Terra moved from the wall over to hover against the chair, smiling down to the matted shock of blond on Aqua’s left. Ven’s eyes cracked open to his voice, a new smile blooming across chubby cheeks to the sight of Terra’s bedhead. Vanitas, unlike his Light, sunk further against Aqua’s chest as he tried to block out the additional tone.

“No, no. Just came to check up on you.” He gifted her cheek a chaste kiss, a hand coming down to tenderly stroke Ven’s cheek twice, moving over to give Vanitas a few mild tickles to his side. It managed to coax a scant smile from the stoic baby. “I can see these two are enjoying themselves.”

Aqua couldn’t help the smirk picking at the corners of her lips. “Yes, they’re enjoying themselves about as much as they would if you were telling the story.” There was a glint of mischief ignited behind his azure eyes as they swept over Aqua’s form, his nose moving to bump into her forehead as his arms wrapped around her over the chair’s back.

“And what’s that supposed to mean, huh?” He growled, squeezing the woman’s shoulders teasingly. “Last I remember you quite liked the sound of my voice.”

“I do, I do!” Her giggles were like chime bells to Terra’s ears, sweet yet naturally elegant in their own way. “I just meant they’re falling asleep the same way they would if you were in my place.” His taunting subsided, large palms lingering as they cupped her shoulders. Terra’s wide palms sent electricity down Aqua’s nerves, a little tingle that only grew her broadening grin. “So, then, what’s made you come out of bed if it’s not to help me with them?”

His smile faltered, left hand moving to scratch the short strands of hair at the base of his neck. “Well, for one, it’s really late. Almost three. Two: we have that meeting at Yen Sid’s today that I’d think you’d want to be awake for. Three: the bed’s cold without you.” His last point garnered a chuckle from the bluenette, her shoulder nudging his hand away as she, reluctantly, waltzed from the chair over to the mirrored cribs. Ventus was easy to lay down, his eyes had been heavy since Aqua began her story, and now they drooped as he sleepily peered up to the Keybalde Master. Vanitas was trickier. He clung tightly to Aqua’s night blouse, hands bunching up the fabric to remain latched to her warmth. So stubborn. Aqua had to wedge her fingers into his tiny fists to pry the raven-haired boy from her bust, gaining an annoyed look in return as she settled him back into his crib.

“Having trouble?” She was, but stole herself as she tucked the boys in for the remainder of the night.

“No. I’m fine, Terra.” If he didn’t believe her answer, he didn’t press the matter. Deafly, he picked her hand from her side, leading her through midnight’s corridors as the moon illuminated the room through the window’s curtains. They returned to their own room, winding down back under the covers, back into their previous embrace.

Aqua’s smile was genuine as her eyes slipped shut once more. Her heart slowed to match Terra’s own, feeling the steady pump through her flushed back to his chest.

She’d have to finish their story another time, then, she thought. On another normal day when it was just them again.

_Normal_ , she mused, how tired she was of things being “ _normal_ ”.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to join the conversation or share writing tips and techniques, I'd love to see you at the _Realm Betweeen_ sometime! It's a KH-centric community server, for those as into the series as us.  
> You can find us here: https://discord.gg/Mjgsm74


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